The invention relates to a method of manufacturing a thin-film magnetic head having at least one transducing element, in which the magnetic head is built up layer by layer, and a tape contact face is formed by removing material said tape contact face is detected by means of a plurality of markers juxtaposed in a layer and extending transversely to said tape contact face, said markers having first end portions pointing in one direction and second, spatially separated end portions pointing in an opposite direction, adjacent second end portions being located at different distances from a reference corresponding to a tape contact face portion is being formed by removing material.
Such a method is known from JP-A 56-29832, JP-A 57-162115 and JP-A 59-223919 (all herein incorporated by reference). In the known method a comb-shaped pattern intersecting a defined reference plane is provided at both sides of a magnetic yoke by means of a thin-film technique. Each comb-shaped pattern has a plurality of outwardly projecting teeth of mutually different lengths. The teeth terminate in outwardly projecting, staggered end portions. A contact face for cooperation with a magnetic tape is formed by means of a polishing process, with an increasing number of teeth becoming visible during polishing. The reference plane is determined from a count of the number of visible teeth, whereafter the polishing process is ended. A drawback of the known method is that the accuracy with which the reference plane can be detected is dependent on the step size between said end portions so that the detection of the reference plane is generally comparatively coarse and no accurately reproducible gap height or pole height can be achieved.